Integration, customization... many questions!

Cala_Marie

New member
  • How customizable is the editor? IPB uses a heavily modified CKEditor, and while you can customize its appearance, adding functionality (can be done through the bbcode manager, but everything added gets lumped into a single menu), adding buttons, changing the layout, and so on is close to impossible.
  • I'm looking for user account integration between MediaWiki and xF (e.g. MW accounts automatically created upon xF account creation, account settings are linked between MW and xF, etc). I don't need the themes to automatically match. Is this plausible?
  • The fact that xF lacks a CMS is fine with me... I still need a CMS though. What CMS would you recommend that I could best integrate with xF, like with MediaWiki?
  • What exactly is the resource manager? It seems to be similar to IP.Downloads. I was planning on opening up a music downloads area on my site that producers and label owners could use to offer up their songs for free or link to where they could be purchased, etc. One problem though is that the versioning system can't be disabled.
  • Can xF utilize Sphinx search? I don't need an automated script that generates search settings like IPB has (but if there is one, that would be splendid).
  • How could I add calendar functionality to xF, or integrate a 2nd/3rd party calendar system?
  • How could I add gallery functionality to xF, or integrate a 2nd/3rd party gallery system?
  • How could I add store functionality to xF, or integrate a 2nd/3rd party store system?
  • How well does xF work with SSL (HTTPS)? Are there any quirks? With IPB, I could get everything to transfer over SSL except for parts of IP.Gallery; if a gallery image was on a page, the result was partial encryption.
  • What's the scope of xF official support? Does it only cover technical issues, or does it extend to other areas as well like customization?
  • What's the learning curve of developing for xF? I have some knowledge of PHP, SQL, and JS albeit not much.
I can elaborate on any of my questions if needed.

Cheers!

Edit: For whatever it's worth, what I install would go on a VPS (CentOS 6.4 x64, 1GB physical memory, 2 cores on an Xeon processor, 20GB disk space/around 15GB with OS installed, Apache 2.4, MySQL 5.5, PHP 5.4)
 
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  1. The editor is customizable via the style property system. Custom BB Codes are only available through add-ons. If you need to customize layout, you'll need to modify some JavaScript. The community will help you.
  2. There is a bridge available.. However, bridges are possible.
  3. There are 2-3 portal add-ons as well as a new Article's manager. I haven't researched CMS's / Portals enough to give you a solid recommendation, however, XenForo has a simple pages manager (they work as nodes, just like forums).
    1. http://xenforo.com/community/resources/widget-portal.1050/
    2. http://xenforo.com/community/resources/poor-mans-portal.718/
    3. http://xenforo.com/community/resources/xenzine-articles.1979/
    4. http://xenforo.com/community/resources/simple-portal.1713/
    5. http://xenforo.com/community/resources/8wayrun-com-xenporta-portal.90/
  4. Your assumption is correct for the resource manager. I believe you can disable the versions with a few template edits and or options. It appears that a fix for this should be in the next version, I suggest reading this thread.
  5. I believe there is an unsupported XenForo-Sphinx implementation. However, XenForo utilizes Elastic Search in their official 'big board' searching add-on, and I would suggest utilizing that versus Sphinx.
  6. You would need an add-on for this. This add-on seems to be the only one (there may be more I don't know about): http://xenforo.com/community/resources/8wayrun-com-xenatendo-events.99/
  7. There are several gallery add-ons. Xen Media Gallery seems to be quite popular.
  8. There are one or two store add-ons that can be found in the Resource Manager here. MicroCart is one that I know of.
  9. I believe it functions just fine with SSL, however, I haven't utilized them.
  10. There are several forums here that will help you. Post any and all questions, there is always someone around to help. If official support won't / can't help the community is very knowledgeable.
  11. If you don't know MVC, its steep. However, the Development Discussions forum is available to ask any questions, the community will always help (I'm usually active in that forum).
Hopefully that answered most of your questions. I suggest you look around the Resource Manager (click on Resources) to see what's available. :)
 
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  1. The editor is customizable via the style property system. Custom BB Codes are only available through add-ons. If you need to customize layout, you'll need to modify some JavaScript. The community will help you.
  2. There is a bridge available.. However, bridges are possible.
  3. There are 2-3 portal add-ons as well as a new Article's manager. I haven't researched CMS's / Portals enough to give you a solid recommendation, however, XenForo has a simple pages manager (they work as nodes, just like forums).
    1. http://xenforo.com/community/resources/widget-portal.1050/
    2. http://xenforo.com/community/resources/poor-mans-portal.718/
    3. http://xenforo.com/community/resources/xenzine-articles.1979/
    4. http://xenforo.com/community/resources/simple-portal.1713/
    5. http://xenforo.com/community/resources/8wayrun-com-xenporta-portal.90/
  4. Your assumption is correct for the resource manager. I believe you can disable the versions with a few template edits and or options.
  5. I believe there is an unsupported XenForo-Sphinx implementation. However, XenForo utilizes Elastic Search in their official 'big board' searching add-on.
  6. You would need an add-on for this. This add-on seems to be the only one (there may be more I don't know about): http://xenforo.com/community/resources/8wayrun-com-xenatendo-events.99/
  7. There are several gallery add-ons. Xen Media Gallery seems to be quite popular.
  8. There are one or two store add-ons that can be found in the Resource Manager here.
  9. I believe it functions just fine with SSL, however, I haven't utilized them.
  10. There are several forums here that will help you. Post any and all questions, there is always someone around to help. If official support won't / can't help the community is very knowledgeable.
  11. If you don't know MVC, its steep. However, the Development Discussions forum is available to ask any questions, the community will always help (I'm usually active in that forum).
Hopefully that answered most of your questions. I suggest you look around the Resource Manager (click on Resources) to see what's available. :)
  1. Excellent!
  2. Excellent!
  3. Hmm... XenPorta and XenZine look extremely promising. Is there by chance a feature comparison table between the two?
  4. Excellent!
  5. I did some reading and I think I'll go with ES instead. Better integration and easier management. Looks like it has some feature advantages over Sphinx as well.
  6. The calendar on my site will be used for users to post information about (legal) raves and parties (e.g. HTID In The Sun, Hardcore Underground, etc.). For that, XenAtendo, looks absolutely perfect.
  7. It does look like a good add-on!
  8. I'll check that out, thanks.
  9. Hmm... hopefully someone from xF can comment on that.
  10. Nice!
  11. I'm familiar with the MVC paradigm. My weak spot is coding. :oops:
One more question, is it possible to buy the resource manager and enhanced search at a later date?

Wow! I never saw this number of questions in a single post! :eek:
Heheh! I plan to be in it for the long haul so I want to double check everything.

Thanks for the help so far. :D
 
11: The development discussions forum will gladly help you.

And yes, you can purchase the Resource Manager and Enhanced Search at a later date.

There were also some extra links in my post that weren't in your quote. ;) You may want to check them out.
 
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Well, I bought and installed xF and I can confirm that it has no qualms with SSL. Other than that, aside from one issue with my server config, everything has gone smoothly so far.
Thanks for the help King Kovifor! :)
 
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